Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
Dames, Dolls, And Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire by Jim Silke
Promo copy:
In the course of his long and illustrious career, renowned illustrator/painter Robert A. Maguire created gorgeous cover images for more than a thousand books and worked for virtually every mainstream publisher in the U.S. Best known for his incomparably sexy "femme fatale" images for pulp paperbacks in the 1950s and 1960s, Maguire built a long and legendary career showcasing character portraits that were iconic and beautiful, painting subjects that felt simultaneously real and sensually compelling. Now, art historian and living pin-up legend Jim Silke casts his curatorial eye toward Maguire’s long and fascinating career in his first art collection/artist biography, Dames, Dolls, and Gun Molls. With a keen eye for criticism and his trademark style and wit, Silke explores the legacy of an artist whose work is known by millions the world over.
This book is ever bit as beautiful as one might expect.
The Pretender’s Crown (The Inheritors’ Cycle, Book 2) by C. E. Murphy
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Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower.
Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primrose’s skills–weapons befitting the queen’s bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her lover and spymaster, Belinda’s father. Now an accomplished assassin, Belinda uncovers the true game her father never intended her to play. For Belinda has found her witchpower, a legacy born from something not of this earth. In a treacherous world where religion and rebellion rule, Lorraine is now in a position to sweep over the countries of Echon and to back her chosen successor to the throne: Belinda.
But Belinda is no longer anyone’s pawn. Lured by the sensual dark magic of Dmitri, envoy to a neighboring throne, yet still drawn to the witchlord embrace of her former lover, Javier, Belinda knows that she has entered a realm where power and control go to those who can master and manipulate their fiercest desires. For the witchpower depends on the skill its wielder holds.
The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens
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Hailed by Stephen Colbert as "a science fiction book your grandmother will love–if she’s a lustful, violent lady," this mordant, fast-paced, witty tour of a delightfully improbable science fiction world combines The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with The Magnificent Seven.
Our hero, Cole, is having a bad day. His sidekick has run off with his girlfriend. His ride has been disintegrated by an officious traffic robot. And the spaceship he’s stolen to escape from a tentacled alien bounty hunter turns out to be filled with freeze-dried orphans. Reluctantly compelled to deliver the defenseless, fluid-less children to safety, Cole recruits a support team of humans, aliens, and one friendly–if cognitively challenged–computer. Their destination: the mysterious Yrnameer, thought to be the last untrammeled planet in the galaxy. Imagine their consternation, then, when they arrive to find it threatened by Cole’s archenemy, the most infamous outlaw in the cosmos.
Will Cole and his band of men and assorted others be able to defeat the vicious Runk? Will Yrnameer remain unspoiled and unsponsored (and unpronounceable)? Will the orphans be rehydrated? Get all the answers right here, in a rollicking first outing from a new comedic talent.
The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker
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Appealing to boys and girls alike, this beguiling adventure explores classic fantasy themes from a unique young heroine’s perspective. Nine-year-old Emma loses everything she has in a fearsome storm and finds herself alone in the wilderness of the Dunes—an area desolate since the mysterious disappearance of a resort known as the Grand Wenlocke. Finding a friend in Winston, the ghostly bellboy who wanders the Dunes, Emma learns that it has been more than 100 years since the hotel with an unsavory reputation vanished; but, unbeknownst to either of them, the long slumbering resort has just begun to stir. Allying herself with a motley crew of companions—the ghost bellboy, a kindhearted cook, a pirate with a heart of gold, and the imperious young heir to the Wenlocke fortune—Emma soon learns that things are not always as lost as they seem, especially if you have a brave heart and good friends.
More in Part Two.